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I've been fascinated with this building for so long, unfortunately it remains hidden in its nook. My dream is for someone to tear down the 4-5 small J&R buildings in front of it and replace them with a small plaza that way this building will be exposed to all of City Hall Park and the surrounding area.

A joint venture partnership including New York Ace Hotel owner and GFI Capital Resources Group President Allen Gross’ GB Lodging is set to puchase the Temple Court building, a nine-story city landmark at 5 Beekman Street formerly owned by the Chetrit Group and Bonjour Capital, GFI told The Real Deal today.

The acquisition is one of the private equity hotel investment firm GB’s first since it was founded last year by Gross and former Chartres Lodging Group partner Bruce Blum. GB is a division of GFI, a spokesperson for the company said, declining to comment further on the acquisition other than to say there were others involved in the deal. The price was not clear.

Hillel Spinner of Venture Capital Properties said he brokered the off-market deal on behalf of the seller. Speculating that GFI would transform the abandoned building into a hotel, he said: “The new owners have the kinds of experience necessary” to make the project successful. The deal, which is currently in contract, will likely close in the next few weeks, he said.

Temple Court, an historic brick and terracotta office building built in the 1880s, has been vacant for many years, according to news reports, and has only been used for fashion industry photo shoots and events, including a shoot for Harper’s Bazaar and for AMC television series “Rubicon,” canceled in 2010. The landmarked property is configured around a nine-story atrium surrounded by Victorian era railings.

The building was reported to be in contract to hotelier Andrew Balazs last year; but a spokesperson for Balazs, who had been interested in sprucing up the declining building and converting it into a hotel, said he had never signed on the dotted line.

“[Balazs] took a close look at it but then walked away from the deal because it didn’t make sense,” the spokesperson said.

The building made headlines in 2010 when Chetrit and Bonjour, which paid $61 million for the building in 2008 and planned to convert it into a 200-room hotel, got into a legal dispute following a foreclosure action taken against the property. As The Real Deal previously reported, Chetrit filed a $50 million lawsuit against Bonjour’s Charles Dayan, alleging the investment partner reneged on a deal to pay off a defaulted construction loan after the lender filed to foreclose on the building. Chetrit ultimately won a $2.45 million judgment.

Chetrit and Bonjour, which still own the building according to public records, put up $22 million in cash for the purchase of the building in 2008, news reports from 2010 claim, and Pacific National Bank provided $45.7 million in financing. A 2010 foreclosure action against the building indicates that the developers had stopped making interest payments. Spinner said the issue had been resolved.

Since Temple Court at 5 Beekman Streetsold to a new hotel developer in April, the building fell off the radar a bit, despite ongoing work to convert the landmark beauty into a hotel with condos. But a covert tipster sent along 16 photos from inside the dusty oldtimer, giving us an updated look inside the hotel of the future. Much looks the same since ScoutingNY visited the building in 2010, but that doesn't make the soaring atrium or original details any less impressive.

The photos give no indication to 5 Beekman Street being a construction zone, but parts of it certainly are. Permits have been filed with the DOB for the conversion from office to hotel, and the most recent permit is for the "construction of model room," which sounds like something we want to know more about. The renovated building already has a teaser website that says the new structure will have 285 hotel rooms and 85 residences, and the hotel should be open by 2014. The website also says that there will be a 40-story tower involved, but we have no idea where that might be going. There is mention of "an adjacent site on Nassau Street," so possibly there?

Originally built in 1881-1883, 5 Beekman was the first high-rise building in New York. GB Lodging and its affiliate GFI Development Company are converting this unique, historic structure, together with an adjacent site on Nassau Street, into a luxury hotel consisting of 285 guestrooms and 85 residences. The project will total approximately 340,000 square feet, include a 40+ story tower and intends to be a catalyst in the transformation of the Fulton Nassau Historic District. The hotel is scheduled to open late 2014.

A tipster alerted us that interior and structural demolition permits for 5 Beekman Streethave finally been filed with the Department of Buildings, meaning that the storied brick-and-terra cotta beauty is one step closer to its future as a hotel-slash-condo conversion. Also known as Temple Court and the Beekman Palace, the building is a landmark, so some elements will be preserved (including, thankfully, the incredible Victorian atrium with the glass ceiling and iron railings pictured above) in the creation of 285 guestrooms and 85 residences—some in a 40+-story tower on Nassau Street near the existing 10-story structure—described on the developer's teaser site. The website also promises that the hotel will be up and running by late next year.

Though the building is being developed by a joint venture called GB Lodging, which counts as its victories darlings like the Ace and Nomad hotels, a permit filing also reveals, for the first time, the names of the architects on the project (or at least this stage of it): Gerner, Kronick + Valcarcel. Among its many clients, this firm in particular seems to have relevant experience converting historic spaces in New York and around the world, having designed the Plaza Hotel's private residences as well as a Park Hyatt in Istanbul housed within an old consulate building.

FIDI/BATTERY PARK CITY—A tipster sent in some photos of scaffolding going up around 5 Beekman Street (above), which is a big relief. We'd just reportedthat the beautifully atrium-ed and iron railing-ed darling was inching closer to its future life as a hotel since some crucial permits had been filed, only to discover that the scaffolding around that building, which had seemingly been up forever, was being taken down. Well, that was a step in the wrong direction, but the good news is that new scaffolding is up, which means the long-awaited overhaul can finally begin.

Friday, June 14, 2013, by Curbed Staff
Urban explorers and other lovers of New York's faded glory will soon have to cross one building off their list; plans to restore the beautifully decaying building known as Temple Court into a hotel sailed through Community Board 1's landmarks committee 8-0 last night. The committee was wowed by architectGerner Kronick + Valcarcel's plan to hew closely to the building's original features. The developers of the 5 Beekman Street building, who plan to turn the 1880s-era structure across from City Hall Park, along with a new 40+-story tower that will go up next door, into a hotel with 285 rooms, 85 condos, and retail on the ground floor, sought permission to build a few small additions on the building's roof, chiefly the extension of an air-conditioning system and an elevator bulkhead, neither of which would come close to the height of the building's two towers. The architects will also amend the building's store fronts, making sure that they will remain "inspired by the 19th Century," though it is unlikely that the Phillips Sporting Good Co., the 20-cent sheet music store, or Baltimore Dairy Lunch will return.
The brick and terracotta building's status as a landmark requires the developers to seek permission for the exterior changes, which will be implemented under the watchful eye of preservation experts Higgins Quasebarth & Partners. And though architects have more leeway in terms of the interior, planners said they will keep the nine-story Victorian atrium, with iron balustrades favored by young rappers, largely intact, again drawing rare praise from the committee, who noted that as a hotel, the interior will be somewhat accessible by the public."A lot of us worried about what would happen to the building for years, but it is exciting to know that the interior will be restored as well," said committee member Corie Sharples. Or as chair Roger Byrom put it more succinctly, "This is terrific. Many terrible things could have happened."
—Eli Rosenberg
· 5 Beekman Street coverage [Curbed]

The permit was finally revised to show what's really going to rise on the lot next door at 115 Nassau Street. A residential tower of 47 stories, 595 feet designed by Gerner Kronick & Valcarcel. This will be very visible and overlooking City Hall Park so they better not pull a Brooklyner. Since the Temple Court Building next door is part of the zoning lot, there probably won't be a giant blank 50 story north facing wall.